La Franci
Modena, Italy
Born in Modena, Italy, Francesca de Bassa studied at the University of Bologna, where she majored in Literature and Philosophy with a focus on Contemporary Art History. Her academic adventures then took her to the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Turin, where she specialized in Animation Direction and 3D techniques.
Since 2013, she’s been based in London, weaving her eclectic style into the ever-shifting world of moving images. Her fingerprints can be found on everything from advertising, music videos, and news media to art installations, theater, video mapping, and the shiny new realm of virtual production. Her work spans across advertising, music, news media, art installations, theater, video mapping, and the emerging field of virtual production. In 2023, she earned a Virtual Production certificate from NFTS in Beaconsfield, followed in 2024 by a specialization in AI Film Direction—because apparently sleep is optional.
Francesca’s directorial style is a never-ending work-in-progress; think playful experimentation meets artistic curiosity with a dash (or more) of weirdness. Her work is often described by industry professionals and critics as eccentric, quirky, and unapologetically nonconformist (hopefully they mean it in a good way).
Her latest film, Nothing We Say Can Change What We’ve Been Through, has been featured in several festivals and picked up awards including Best Micro Film at the Cambridge Short Film Festival 2024, Best Director of Super Shorts at the Monthly Future Film Awards 2025, and Best Experimental Film at the Hasting Rocks Film Festival 2025.
She is now working on her new short film, Lotta; a surreal walk through the conversations we have with ourselves when sleep just won’t come, and the hidden traumas that set them off. It's introspective, a bit strange, and probably more relatable than most people would like to admit.
She works with all kinds of materials and keeps her creative radar tuned to themes like women’s lives, mental health, and the general chaos of society. She’s been trying to make the world a better place for years, hasn’t quite cracked it yet, but hey, she’s still trying. And that counts for something.
